


How The Fabrics of the Universe Will Fuck You Up

by fandomsandshit



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves Lives, Companionable Snark, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Number Five can manipulate the fabrics of the universe, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, They all need hugs, all of them have trauma, i just found that tag and i’m using it in all my fics now, like i would tag them all separately but that would take forever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29222175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsandshit/pseuds/fandomsandshit
Summary: If you ask any member of the Umbrella Academy, they will tell you that their resident teleporter is Number Five.They are wrong.Five has never teleported a day in his life.----------(au in which five's power isn't spatial jumping or time travel, but manipulating the fabrics of the universe.)
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Luther Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Grace Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Allison Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Ben Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Diego Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Luther Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 8
Kudos: 185





	How The Fabrics of the Universe Will Fuck You Up

**Author's Note:**

> i powered this out in like three hours. i don't know why, i have plenty of other fics to be writing, but this needed to happen

_Practice, Number Five. You are manipulating space. Do not let it fall apart._

*

For many years, Number Five and Number Seven were similar. Not necessarily in the same boat, but in the same ocean.

The one with no powers, and the one with a useless power.

_(For how can he train something he cannot control?)_

They were together, through it all, until Number Five figured out how to make space bend to his will.

*

You ask any member of the Umbrella Academy, they will tell you their resident teleporter is Number Five.

He isn’t.

He’s never teleported a day in his life.

*

There are many fabrics of the universe; space, time, reality, dimensions.

Some of the Umbrella Academy can cause folds in the fabrics.

But Number Five can rip them apart.

*

When they were younger, when they were infants, their powers affected them.

Luther’s tantrums would cause him to break fingers and bend tables.

Diego could always nail his Nanny in the head with whatever was interesting him at the moment.

Allison would smile or cry, and her Nanny would run to appease her.

Klaus had imaginary friends that screamed at him, so he would scream louder.

Ben would constantly cry out in pain, the Horror trying to rip him to shreds.

Vanya was kept silent, for noise would disturb her.

Number Five, however, was not teleporting around the house. He was listening to sounds only he could hear, feeling waters that were not there, and suffocating in brick walls that only he could sense.

On certain days, it was a comfort, knowing he was never alone.

On others, it was torture.

*

The fabric of space is constantly buzzing around him, like an annoying fly that won’t let him alone. It’s akin to a silk curtain, delicate but beautiful, and Five admires its resilience.

(However, much like a silk curtain, rip too much or too far and it will fall apart, shredding at the seams.)

(Five is careful to only rip what he needs, and repairs it after.)

(It wouldn’t do for all of space to fall in on itself.)

*

The fabric of time is like a flowing river, gently pushing him forward. It curls around him in a cool embrace, a comforting presence, and he follows where it guides him.

(But time isn’t linear. He can throw himself further forward or backward, a stone being shot from a slingshot. One is easier than the other.)

(If he tried, he could force the river itself to move backwards.)

Around Klaus, it parts for those departed in times long past, whose screams only he could hear, but whose presence Five could sense.

(When Klaus starts taking the harder drugs, the ones that force the ghosts to disappear, it is a crushing relief for him.)

(For Five, it is a crushing sense of _wrong_ and of _loss._ )

*

The fabric of reality is not a fabric at all. It is a brick wall that is built high, a reaffirming presence – at least, until it looms over him, threatening to crush him.

(Trying to change that is like chipping away at the bricks. He needs the energy to pick up a sledgehammer to it and start anew.)

(Whenever Allison rumours someone, the wall quakes and quivers, trying to crumble.)

(Each time, more and more dust falls down.)

*

The fabric of dimension, what keeps everything that is supposed to be together, _together,_ is like a concrete cube. Five knows there are six walls, but they extend far beyond what he can sense. It’s like air – he knows it’s there, but he cannot see it.

(Around Ben, there is a dip in the otherwise smooth surface, one that deepens and cracks every time the Horror is let out.)

(It wants two cubes to interconnect.)

(Even death could not stop that.)

*

He could hear space buzzing around him.

He could feel time flowing over him.

He could feel reality solidify and quiver.

(Only one thing could make it quiver – and she would never be able to do much more than that.)

He couldn’t feel, but more _sense_ this dimension, what was keeping all the fabrics together.

(He could only feel it when the Horror was moving.)

*

Sometimes, it got to be too much, but he couldn’t stop it.

( _Sensory overloads,_ Mom calls them.

 _Weakness,_ Father calls them.)

*

One day, when he was ten years old, he gets curious. He takes the silk cloth of space into his palms, feels it vibrate as it moves, and _pulls._

It tears with no resistance.

The rip is big enough for Five, so he falls in. He gets spat back out on the other side of his room.

(It’s not teleporting, not really. It’s bunching up the universe into a fold, ripping it in half, and going to the other side.)

*

His father said once, _you are manipulating space, Number Five, do not let it fall apart._

Five always makes sure to repair it after that.

*

He takes a chisel to reality only once.

*

He is on a mission, a few months after the Umbrella Academy’s public appearance.

They have been called to a bank – a simple robbery. They could do this in their sleep. However, it’s not a robbery.

It’s a setup.

Allison and Klaus have been gagged, and they’re stuffed in a corner, tears like tidal waves rushing down their cheeks as Ben struggles with the rope.

Luther and Diego, much to their chagrin, are working together, knocking out enemies and slashing at their skin.

Five is crouched behind a pillar, breaths coming short out of his mouth with an unfocused vision. He’s not injured, but space is uncooperating. He tries and tries to get close enough to rip it apart, but each step forward results in the buzzing increasing in volume. It’s disorienting, making his head hurt and vision swim.

Diego stops to take a breath, and that’s when he notices Five on his knees, panting, on the verge of collapse.

But he doesn’t notice that.

All he sees is Five on his knees, staring at the wall with a defiant look on his face. It sparks anger.

“Help us, Five!” He yells. “Get your ass up, and help!”

Five turns to look at the noise. His eyes focus on Diego, eyes aflame and glaring, a jagged gash on the side of his head that is bleeding sluggishly. Five sees his _brother,_ injured by these low lives, and a cold fury trickles down his spine.

He stands up, ignoring the buzzing silk trying to smother and force him down, and turns to the enemy with a wild look in his eyes.

He feels the harsh, jagged brick wall of reality, a firm presence due to Allison’s incapacitation.

He picks up the biggest sledgehammer he can, raises it behind his head, and swings it forward with all the force he can muster.

The brick wall crumbles.

*

(Later, a news station will report on the spontaneous combustion of the local bank, due to a bomb planted there by the heinous criminals. It will report on how the Umbrella Academy were inside the building during the explosion, but miraculously survived. It will sing their praises.)

*

(Later, Diego will recall the feral look in Five’s eyes, as he raised his hands and swung them forward. He will recall a moment where he felt like he was floating, where he was surrounded by a nothingness he couldn’t describe, where he could feel everything and nothing all at once. He will recall smacking harshly onto the gravel outside the bank, as a ringing explosion rocked the establishment to the ground. He will recall staring at Five, _his brother,_ with such awe as he teleported them all away from the explosion that the robbers- no, that _Five_ caused. He will recall Five looking at him, briefly, before collapsing to the ground. He didn’t get back up for a week.)

(Diego will not tell his father this. He will say that Five exhausted his powers teleporting them all away from the explosion, and Reginald will tut in disappointment. Diego will look at Five in a new light.)

*

“You caused that explosion, didn’t you?”

Diego is perched on the chair by Five’s bed in the infirmary, wringing his hands together. It’s just the two of them.

Five nods, a tired look in his eyes. Diego knows that Five thinks he’ll tell Dad.

“I won’t tell Dad.”

Five pauses, before nodding again. If Dad knew, Five would be exploding things in training all the time. Five would collapse into reality itself, never to escape. That couldn’t happen.

*

(Little do either of them know, this is a turning point in their relationship.)

*

Five tells Diego everything, after sufficient annoying.

He tells him how space buzzes like an alarm in ears, how time flows in a deceptively gentle manner, how reality is on the verge of collapse, how he _knows_ dimension is there, but he can’t prove it.

He tells him what happened that day at the bank.

Diego sits there, silent, until Five stops speaking. Then he reaches over, punches his shoulder, and says, “Well, we better make sure Luther, Allison and Dad don’t find out then.”

*

Five and Diego have never been close.

In one lifetime, they stay that way, up until Five’s disappearance. Diego will look for him with his other siblings, but not whole-heartedly. The dredges of concern mutate into jealousy and fury, that Five got out, and left him behind. He will turn into a caricature of his true personality, and Diego will hold that resentment for over a decade.

That’s not this lifetime.

In this one, Diego sees the fear in Five’s eyes whenever Allison rumours someone, and knows it’s because reality is shaking in its foundations. He sees how Five winces when space decides to fight back. In this world, Diego is glad to not have Five’s power, and keeps his secret. He realises the lengths Reginald would go to in order to control this power, and Diego is determined to never let that happen.

In this world, they are _brothers._

*

Vanya finds out next.

She already knew of the relentless buzzing of space and the endless flowing of time. She was there when everything was too much too fast, and would stay with him until the universe righted itself again.

Five tells her of the brick wall he obliterated, and how the price was a week spent rebuilding it. He tells her of the dip in this dimension, the one centred around Ben. He tells her of the fear that he feels every time he rips space, the fear that one day he would rip too far and destroy everything.

Vanya has never been happy to be powerless, but she feels a tiny spark of relief that she is not like Five.

Vanya and Five grow closer as a result.

Vanya tells him of how, when the world gets too loud, she takes her meds and it quietens down to a manageable level. When the world gets too much, Five begs her for one pill, just to see if it made the world any better. She knows what effect it could have on him (Klaus is walking proof), but she agrees to let him have _one._ Diego forces himself into the event, wanting to see what would happen.

And the world is silent.

For the first time in his life, he can hear nothing except for Vanya and Diego’s breathing, and his own heartbeat.

And he cries.

*

(Later, Five will limp up to Vanya’s room, battered and bruised from special training – the cane and the window – and he will sit down next to her. He’ll take his hand in hers, and tell her that her meds prevented him from ripping space, and that Reginald did not take kindly to that.

He’ll tell her, _You might have powers, Vanya,_ and she won’t believe him, but she’ll desperately want to.

One day, she won’t take her pills.)

*

The world is loud.

Vanya is at dinner with her family, hands shaking as she holds her cutlery. Five and Ben shoot her worried looks, Five’s slightly more knowing. Diego keeps glancing at her, carefully not showing concern on his face, but his eyes betray him.

Luther, Allison, Klaus, Ben and Dad don’t know what’s wrong.

Then Luther drops his knife on the ground.

The sound vibrates around her, and she cannot stop her instinctive reaction.

The lights flicker and sway.

Five and Diego are looking up, and then at each other, their only thought being _we fucked up._

After a few, tense seconds of them all (with the exception of Luther and Allison – making lovey-dovey eyes at each other – and Dad – who didn’t care), the light fell down onto the table with an almighty crash.

Vanya (who’s eyes had briefly turned a glistening white) flinched backwards, bringing her arms up to defend herself from the oncoming glass.

When she finally looks up, she sees Dad, staring at all of them, who are frozen in their seats. “Who did that?” He demands, voice promising punishment. Vanya’s eyes fill with tears, and just as she is about to confess, Five shoots her a look. She stays quiet.

Five stands up, glares Dad in the eye, and states confidently, “I did.”

“Nonsense, Number Five.”

If anything, that just makes Five glare harder. “ _I did._ I’ve been practicing teleporting other objects. I tried to do it to the lamp. Unfortunately, it shattered.”

Vanya looks at him with wide eyes. After a brief, but threatening silence, Dad clears his throat, and says, “Special training after dinner, Number Five. Everyone, go to your rooms.”

He nods tersely, and stays behind while everyone else troops out. Vanya glances at him, prepared to say something, when Diego grabs her arm and pulls her up the stairs.

Vanya did that, not Five.

Vanya has powers.

*

(The next day, Diego, Vanya and Ben rush downstairs as early as possible for breakfast. No one had seen Five since dinner the previous day.

He’s there, standing behind his chair, a bruise on his cheek and a scowl on his lips.

They do not ask if he is okay. He does not offer an answer.)

*

It is November 16th, 2002.

In one world, Number Five cuts into the table with his steak knife, declaring his want to time travel. He argues with his father, before bursting out the front door, destined to return after nearly five decades. It is the catalyst of the final breaking of the family.

In this world, Five can feel time pushing him, urging his hand to slam his knife down. He wants to do it, to see where time takes him. He raises his hand.

He catches Diego’s eye. He glares at him, pointedly looking at the raised knife. Five hesitates, and puts it back down. The rest of the meal passes without interruption.

(Because in this world, Five and Diego are brothers in way they weren’t before. Five knows about Diego’s attachment to knives, and is reluctant to blunt one. Diego knows how time wants Five to drift away, and he’ll be damned if he lets it.)

*

Five tells Ben.

Ben finds out about how the Horror is trying to force its way into this dimension, the _wrong_ dimension, and Ben is more frightened than ever. He knew that the Horror was up to something, but knowing what it wants just makes it ten times more scary.

Five tells him about the fabrics the universe is made up with, and how he can feel them at all times. Ben is no stranger to Five’s sensory overloads, but now he knows why, and he can figure out how to help more.

Five, in turn, tells him how he _could_ manipulate this dimension, how he _could_ try and smooth over the dip in this dimension that Ben holds, how he could _seal away the Horror forever –_ given time, of course.

It didn’t take Ben long to agree.

*

(After their discussion, Ben opens his bedroom door, only for Klaus to fall in, becoming a heap of feather boa and mascara on the floor. Ben stifles a giggle whilst Five raises an eyebrow, and Klaus rushes to defend himself.

“You’ve all been so secretive lately!” He whines. “I want to be in the loop!”

So they put him in the loop.)

(Ben, Diego, Five, Klaus and Vanya only have one rule: don’t let the others know.)

*

Reginald is too loyal to his research, Pogo, Mom and Luther are too loyal to Reginald, and Allison is too loyal to Luther.

Until a day comes where they are not, they cannot know.

*

Vanya asks Klaus why he takes so many drugs and alcohol. He replies with, “It gets them to shut up.”

She ponders this for a minute, then goes to her drawer and retrieves a bottle of prescription meds that she hasn’t touched in months. She silently hands one to him.

He takes it, and almost instantly the ghosts disappear, this time without the added high.

He cries.

*

(It takes many years for them to wean Klaus fully off the drugs and alcohol. Even now that he has suppressant pills, he’s an addict. He can’t just stop.

He never gives up weed or whiskey, but it’s enough.

After three years, they are celebrating Klaus’s third month sober.)

*

Five and Ben help Vanya train her powers.

(Five can rip a whole in space to get them away from the mansion, and Ben knows the most about keeping dangerous powers under control.)

They go to isolated, distant places, where Vanya can scream and shout and tear down mountains and calm down and levitate branches.

(By the time she leaves the mansion for good, Vanya is in control.)

*

Once a week, Five eats an unholy amount of fluffernutters, enough to make him sick on a good day, then goes to smooth the dip in Ben’s stomach.

This dimension is like a concrete cube, but it is oddly flexible. Five has to pull it upwards, without falling through or letting the Horror out. This dimension was not intended for a mortal to be able to manipulate it, and it resists more often than not. It’s exhausting, and Five feels like passing out by the end of each session, but the wonderous smile on Ben’s face when he can’t feel the Horror slithering around makes it worth it.

It’s slow going, but they are making progress.

*

When they’re seventeen, six go on a mission intended for five, and six leave.

*

It was a hostage-ransom situation.

The hostages were all free, and the criminals in view had all been taken down.

After all the work Five and Ben had been doing to smooth the dip, the others made it their mission to prevent Ben from using his power – it only sets them back. However, this time there are a group of criminals in an enclosed space, and Luther is commanding Ben to go in and deal with them.

With a sad look to Five, Ben does. Seconds later, the Horror is unleashed, its fury causing it to take down the criminals in a record-breaking ten seconds.

Only, it doesn’t stop.

Ben’s screams join the criminals.

Everyone else is too frozen, staring dumbfounded at the closed door, so Five takes it upon himself to do something.

He grabs the centre of the dip, and _pulls._

It’s agonising, forcing the Horror back to its dimension and sealing the bridge. He was supposed to have more sessions with Ben, but instead he is doing it impromptu with no preparation. His jaw is locked in a silent scream, forcing himself past the point of overexertion, with his only thought in mind being _save Ben._

Distantly, he can feel sluggish rivulets of blood flowing down his face, from his nose and mouth, but he doesn’t stop. The Horror fights back, persistent, until Five beats it into submission.

He smooths the dip, locking the Horror away forevermore.

He passes out.

*

(Diego is by Five’s side the moment he starts screaming, when blood starts free-falling to the floor. He knows what Five’s doing. When Ben stops screaming and Five drops, he is there to catch him.

Klaus bursts into the room, seeing Ben laying on the floor in a pool of blood, and thinks _this is the end._ But Ben’s chest rises and falls.

Ben’s alive.)

*

It takes Ben two days to wake up, and Five three weeks.

(Dimensions were not intended to be trifled with, and Five pays the price.)

In that time, Vanya steals as many bottles of her suppressant pills from the infirmary as there are. Klaus nicks as much cash as he can, along with a multitude of small priceless artifacts. Diego sneaks out of the house, and returns with fake IDs and passports (no one asks where he got them). Ben keeps a steady vigil over Five’s bed, exempt from training – he has nothing to train.

The second Mom gives him the all-clear, they are sneaking out, never to return.

*

(The day before they leave, Klaus asks Allison and Luther to leave with them. Luther firmly refuses, but doesn’t tell on them. Allison is a bit more hesitant, but ultimately decides to stay. She promises to leave soon, gives Klaus a burner phone with her phone’s contact on it, and goes to her room.

They leave with only a slight amount of animosity between them.)

*  
They score a small apartment, one with just enough room for all five of them. They are sharing rooms and toilets, but they don’t complain. Anything is better than where they were.

Five is kept in the apartment for another week, with strict orders to not manipulate anything. He’s grumpy about it, but listens to his siblings advice.

For a month, they wait anxiously to hear about their disappearance on the news. Klaus and Vanya break into stores, stealing normal clothes, food and other essentials.

(“A feather boa is _not_ an essential, Klaus!”

“How do you know what an essential is, Miss ‘If I Don’t Have That Rosin I Will Blow You Up’?”

“I need rosin! Otherwise my violin is scratchy and then I’ll blo-“

“ _You’ll blow shit up._ Alright, can you spot anymore rosin?”)

*

Eventually, they accept that Reginald couldn’t give a damn about where they were. Diego forces them all to dye their hair, and get fake glasses, in order to hide their appearance.

(“They do it all the time in those detective movies!”

“Yeah, but in case you haven’t noticed, we’re not in a detective movie.”

“He has a point, Vanya. We’re famous.”

“Ben, I trusted you!”)

*

They all get jobs. Ben applies at the local library, and spends his days surround by paper and ink, never feeling the Horror again. Diego enlists in the police academy, and, with his siblings’ pushing, stays and graduates to become a fully blown police officer. Vanya joins the orchestra, and becomes a teacher at the national music school in their area. Klaus becomes a barista at a coffeeshop, and always draws little hearts or flowers on top of people’s lattes.

And Five?

Five becomes a writer.

He writes pages and pages of papers, disproving people’s ideas about the universe and angering a lot of physicists (he lives to spite them). He writes hundreds of mathematical formulas, and takes great joy in telling mathematicians that they’re wrong.

He even writes a book, titled _How The Fabrics Of the Universe Will Fuck You Up,_ and it is a bestseller among science and math communities worldwide.

(“Five! You can’t put the word ‘fuck’ into your title!”

“Watch me, asshole. I’m my own publisher.”)

*

They all have their days.

Days when Ben will get a stomach ache, and immediately start panicking about the Horror coming back.

Days when Diego’s eyes are a little too sharp and his words even sharper, and his knives never leave his body.

Days when Vanya will be startled by something, and will have to get someone to calm her down. (Sometimes, she needs a pill. She’s too powerful when scared.)

Days when Klaus will can’t escape the whispers of the dead, and has to be held down to prevent him getting drunk. (He is not reliant on the suppressant pills, but takes them a lot. He is trying to come off them.)

Days when the buzzing takes over Five’s head, and the waters of time are a bit too cold, and the brick wall of reality looms over him.

But they’re getting better.

*

Allison calls Klaus four months after their great escape, and tells him her plan. She gives him her new phone number, and talks briefly with the others. She runs away to Hollywood, and instantly gets swept up in the stardom.

In another world, she was separate from her family, only thinking of them in the passing as she cultivated her life in fame.

In this world, they have weekly Skype sessions, catching up on their lives. They are stronger united than they would ever be apart.

*

(Luther remains in the mansion. He misses everyone, and how they used to fill up the halls with life. He misses his family.)

*

One month before the mission that would’ve killed him, Luther takes a deep breath, and marches out of the Academy doors. He finds Five, Klaus and Ben, still in the apartment they first bought after the great escape, and they welcome him in with open arms.

He stays with them, getting a job at the mechanic nearby. Even after earning a steady income, he stays with them.

He never wants to leave his family again.

*

And they’re happy.

*

The date is the 25th of March, 2019.

Reginald Hargreeves is found dead in his mansion.

Diego forces them all to go to his funeral, if only so that he can get Mom out of that godforsaken house. They agree.

They all show up, laughing and joking, the years of resentment behind them. Klaus stubs out a cigarette in Reginald’s ashes, and they cheer. Diego throws knives at the painting of Reginald, and they cheer. In tandem, Five and Vanya blow up the basement. It rocks the mansion in its foundations, but Five knocks reality back into place. They cheer.

*

Pogo and Mom are the only ones to attend the funeral.

*

While all of this was going on, the Temps Commission was sat behind their desks, scratching their heads as they tried to figure out what was wrong.

Ultimately, they did nothing.

The apocalypse is inevitable, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> might post a sequel during the canon timeline when i get a chance :D


End file.
